Ghost of Terror Past
by greekie527
Summary: When a surprise visitor shows up at Lindsay's office, how will Lindsay and the team react, especially because of the unique and difficult circumstances? Rated just in case.
1. Chapter 1

Lindsay signed her name with a flourish, then moved the form to the "Done" stack. She rolled her eyes and sighed at the outrageous amount of paperwork that came with each and every case. Even for a simple B&E, she had to fill out forms for everything from the location of every piece of evidence to all the eyewitness accounts and beyond. In the end, each case required anywhere from 100 to 300 pieces of paper, most of which were eventually shredded anyway. "What a waste of trees," Lindsay thought.

Her reflections were interrupted by a soft knocking. She glanced up from the pile on her desk. Stella grinned at her from the doorway. "Paperwork," Stella observed, "The best part of the whole job, dont'cha think?" Lindsay merely raised her eyebrows in assent. "Well, good luck and have fun," Stella remarked dryly. "Yeah right," Lindsay smirked, and returned reluctantly to the mountain of paper demanding her attention. Several minutes later, another knock at the door startled her. This time, it was Danny. "Hey, Montana," he said in his distinctive New Yaaawwk accent, "what's shakin'?" Lindsay rolled her eyes at him. "That bad, huh. Hey, at least they can read your writing. I have to redo most of my forms 'cause they can't read my fine penmanship," he went on. This comment drew a chuckle from Lindsay, and she redirected her focus to the heap of forms with a somewhat lighter heart, even though she was getting annoyed by the interruptions.

Half an hour later, Lindsay was almost done with the paperwork when she heard a voice say, "Lindsay…" She started to snap, "What do you want!" and give her visitor a death glare when the words caught in her throat. Standing in the doorway to her office was a young woman. She was leaning heavily on the door jamb, and she was obviously in pain. Blood was dripping from a gaping hole in her abdomen, several gashes on her neck and arms, and, most horrifically, between her legs. Purple bruises were starting to form on her face and upper torso, and she was swaying as if she was drunk. In reality, she was going into shock and about to lose consciousness. "Holy crap," Lindsay gasped. It took her a few moments to recognize the bleeding woman in the door as Lindsay's younger sister Anna. "Um, here, you need to sit down. Here, sit in my chair," Lindsay instructed, by now in full crisis-response mode. "I'm going to go get help. Don't move, whatever you do. Okay, Anna?" Anna merely grunted, but Lindsay knew she understood.

Lindsay stepped out of the office and stopped. She took a deep breath, crossed herself, and said a quick prayer. Then she pulled out her cell phone and called Mac. The phone went straight to his voicemail. "Damn," she thought. "He must be in his office." She quickly strode down the hall toward Mac's workplace. She passed a lab, then stopped, doubled back, and approached Sheldon Hawkes. "Hawkes," she said fairly breathlessly, "come with me. I'm going to Mac's office and I need your help." Hawkes followed, mystified.

"Mac!" Lindsay burst into Mac's office with Hawkes on her heels. "This had better be important," he warned, extremely irritated that they had interrupted his musings over a recent case. "It is. Trust me, Mac, it is," Lindsay assured him. Her calmness was wearing off by the second now. "Okay," Mac sighed, "what's going on?" Lindsay took a deep breath and said quietly, "We have a situation in my office." Now Mac's pulse was racing. "What kind of situation?" He asked apprehensively. "I can't really explain it here. But I need you there to help out. I need Hawkes too," Lindsay said. Giving Lindsay a disgruntled frown, he followed her and Hawkes down the corridor to Lindsay's office. Neither of the men were prepared for the sight that met them when they walked through the door.


	2. Chapter 2

"She's my sister," Lindsay explained quietly. Deep down inside, she hoped that this was unrelated to the attacks from so long ago. "It's a long story, and I'll explain it as we get there, but we won't be able to take her to any hospital in New York. We're gonna have to treat her here. That's why I got you, Hawkes, 'cause you've been in the ER and you'd know what to do. And Mac, well, I got you because… you can handle a crisis." Taking this as his cue, Hawkes went over to the bloody figure slumped in the chair. He glanced at Mac, and together they lifted Anna and laid her on the carpet behind Lindsay's desk; they didn't want anyone to see them. Anna slowly opened her eyes; when she saw Hawkes, she let out a little yelp of terror. "Anna, An-An, it's OK! He's a doctor, he can help you! Relax, hon!" Lindsay said as she sat near Anna's head and held her hand. "If you're a doctor, why are you in the crime lab?" Anna asked quietly. "Well," Hawkes said gently, "I'm actually a CSI, just like your sister. I used to be the ME, and I worked in the ER for a few years before that." Anna nodded slightly and joked, "Isn't it a bit early for the ME?" Everyone laughed.

"Anna, sweetheart, I'm going to need to somehow remove your shirt to get at your wounds," Hawkes gently asked. Lindsay saw Anna's reluctance to comply, and she said, "It's okay, An-An. You'll be fine." Anna acquiesced. As Hawkes gently cut the shirt away from her body, he revealed a gunshot wound, several deep lacerations. None of them were prepared for what they saw next: Anna had been branded dead in the center of her chest, right over her collarbone. The flesh was black; the brand depicted a skull and crossbones surrounded by a wreath of laurels. Mac closed his eyes when he saw the symbol; he recognized it as the mark of an Islamic terrorist group he had encountered when he was a Marine. He knew the full extent of their sadism first-hand. Hawkes just stared at the black mark in open horror. Lindsay closed her eyes and allowed a few tears to fall, her worst fears confirmed. All the awful memories came flooding back.

_Lindsay and Anna huddled in the corner of the dark room. They had just witnessed the brutal executions of their parents. Lindsay wished that they had never agreed to go to the Middle East with their parents. Suddenly, the door burst open and flooded the room with bright sunshine. A huge man stood in the doorway, a silhouette against the brilliant background. Slowly, he chuckled in anticipation. He stepped into the room and locked the door behind him. He removed a pouch from his belt and lit a small fire in the corner. He took out an object with a long handle and placed its end in the fire. The terrorist stepped over to the corner where the two girls sat in terror. His eyes flickered between them and finally settled on Anna. "I'll have you fir-" he was saying, when Lindsay interrupted him. "No. Take me first," she implored. "I'll do anything for you." The man considered this offer, then roughly grabbed Lindsay's arm. He dragged her out of the corner, then shoved her onto her back in the center of the dirt floor. He became very gentle now. He tied her hands behind her back and gagged her, caressing her all the way. Lindsay shuddered as he spread her legs. Anna made eye contact with Lindsay, and they held each other's gazes as the man raped Lindsay again and again. When he was satisfied, he roughly flipped her onto her back with his boot. He grabbed the handle of the object in the fire and walked over to Lindsay. Lindsay only saw a flash of white-hot metal before she felt a pain like no other on the center of her back. She heard and smelled her flesh sizzling and burning. Then, she was picked up an tossed rudely back into the corner._


End file.
